[section_title title=Closer Look (Cont.)]
Closer Look Continued
In this section, I always explore what lays beneath the cooler which not only gives you more to look at, it also shows you what components are utilised on the card as well. As always, with any HIS cooler, the entirety comes off with the removal of four screws that we saw previously in that square bracket. The heatsink is somewhat different from the other ones that I’ve seen in the past, not in a bad way, but more so to cater for the cost of the card as well as the performance. As this is a GPU that kicks out far, far less heat than than the HD7950 or the 280X, there is no reason to include such a beefy cooler as it only adds unwanted expense for no other reason other than to shave a few degrees off. By reducing the size of the cooler and the amount of materials used in it as well (less fins), it brings a cheaper card to you, the end user, whilst still remaining completely capable of cooling itself. So as we can see, there are five 6mm heatpipes on this HIS cooler which is more than adequate to carry away heat from the core and into the fins. Another thing which is visible now that the cooler is taken off is the heat spreader which I do think is a must on each and every single GPU that is long enough to sag under its own weight once its installed inside a case.
If you compare this cooler to the cooler of the 280X, you can clearly see the apparent lack of fins. It’s not because HIS are cheap and are trying to save money, it’s actually still an overpowered cooler for the job and it is just to bring you, the end user, a cheaper card whilst still keeping to HIS’ high quality standards. Having tested a few HIS cards before this one, I am confident that this one will remain cool and quiet, exactly as they say on the box.
Power delivery is an important factor on any GPU because if the manufacturer uses poor quality components, the voltages will fluctuate and they will wear out faster than if a higher quality component were used in its place. HIS only use premium quality components, and yes it may reflect in the price on the odd occasion, it is without a doubt worth the extra few bob to get a card that could potentially last much longer. As this is a low-ish power drawing card, there are only three power phases for the GPU, one for the VRAM and another for the other various components around the board.
The current choice for VRAM on the HIS 270X is of the Hynix variation and I have praised it before for its overclocking abilities. Although the Samsung modules are faster and they do overclock better as well, they are also more expensive to produce and utilise so it is a wise choice that there are modules on here that may not reach as high a clock speed, but it does help to make this card more affordable and increase that all important bang-for-buck ratio.
